16 MP Polaroid Android HD smartphone does optical zoom

Hey, look - it's Big Foot! No, it's just the Altek Leo, a creature that appears occasionally, the local newspaper writes about it and then disappears for another year. This time there's a big name attached to it at least, so maybe this time it will get a proper market release. Meet the Polaroid SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera.

Styled like an old school camera, the Polaroid SC1630's crowning feature is a 16MP camera unit (was 14MP when we last saw the Leo), with 3x optical zoom, F3.1-F5.6 aperture, ISO up to 3200 and shutter speeds of up to 1/1400. There's a xenon flash to go with it too. The SC1630 can shoot 720p videos.

Polaroid SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera

On the phone side of things, there's quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G connectivity, microSIM card, a 3.2" WVGA screen, Android OS (not sure which version) and a 2.5mm audio jack (huh?). The phone is rather thick at 18.5mm, but if you look at it as a point-and-shoot camera it's actually quite compact.

The battery is reportedly just 1020mAh, which is insufficient for all the mechanical zoom and xenon flash goodies, so we hope it will be replaced by the time the Polaroid SC1630 hits the shelves.

Kodak's contribution to the project comes in the form of their proprietary compression technology, which allows the user to tweak the size of photos.

The Polaroid Android HD will reportedly cost $299 when it hits the shelves in April, but Polaroid is still in talks with carriers so it's unclear who will carry it. They are also considering offering the phone pre-paid.

You can check out our hands-on photos of the Android-running Polaroid SC1630 over here.